We are Donnell Cannon and Jenny O’Meara, two passionate educators. Welcome to Season 2 of The Hummingbird Stories. This season, we’re asking the question: What does an extraordinary education look like for every student?
We’re hosting conversations with the most innovative, equity-minded leaders in education from all across the country — and that includes students.
In this second episode, we talk about student-centered learning with two students — QuaNaisa and Janaya — and Sonn Sam, a national director at Big Picture Learning.
We want to hear from you, too. In every episode on this season of The Hummingbird Stories, we’ll pose a question and ask you to weigh in through our Telbee. This week’s question asks you to think of yourself as a learner: If there was a school designed just for you, what would it look like? Visit sayhi.chat/hummingbird to chime in.
We know a lot of “Hummingbirds” who are no longer waiting for change in a system on fire, but rather choosing to do something. We hope they’ll inspire you to take real action, no matter how small, toward redesigning schools.
An extraordinary education for all young people is possible. But it’s going to take all of us to make it happen.
Behind the Story
The Hummingbird Stories is the brainchild of educators Donnell Cannon and Jenny O’Meara. Robert Kinlaw produced Season 2 of the podcast, and Rupen Fofaria supported Season 2 as a creative planner.
On this episode, you heard from one of our former students, QuaNaisa. We met her at the micro-school we helped establish. You can learn more about that school here and here. Also in this episode, you heard from Sonn Sam, whose work you can learn more about here, and Janaya, a student at Nashville Big Picture High School.
The hummingbird artwork on the cover is by then-eighth grade student Joselyn Hernandez, now a high school junior.
